Landlines are proven technology for 100 years and are far more immune to hacking, malware, etc. They are our last physical backup in case of a natural or human made disaster, such as earthquakes, floods, and attacks via EMP technology. Landlines will often still work when VOIP and Cell towers go down or get overcrowded. Getting rid of landlines would be getting rid of our last communications safety net. The phone companies want this because providing cell and VOIP is cheaper and makes more money for them. They could seemly care less about public safety. If we get rid of landlines, we will have no alternative for a malware attack since landlines rely on switches and rather than packets that can be corrupted. Most landline phones also are analog and immune to malware.

Getting rid of landlines would be setting us up for a potential nationwide communications disaster.

cgraves67:I'm kind of concerned about my children's generation when they get to the workplace. There will be this weird deskset covered with buttons and intercom features and maybe even curly wires still. They won't know what the heck to do with it because the only phones they ever knew growing up were little rectangles of plastic and glass with a computer and a camera inside.

You're concerned because your kids won't be immediately familiar with a piece of outdated technology when they enter a workplace that will in all likelihood either (a) never use them, or (b) use cell phones and/or internet-based teleconferencing instead?

mayIFark:With Skype, a home phone is $3/month and all you would need is a one time charge to buy a handset. Since all houses has internet, I don't understand why would anyone have home phones (unless you are in an area where the only way to get internet is dial up).

I have Skype, Magic Jack and a cellphone. Magic Jack is great because it's cheaper than Skype. Skype is great for just Skype to Skype calls. When you work from home and make a ton of phone calls, Magic Jack is better than a cell phone because reception is not an issue. The issue with Skype and Magic Jack is that in a black out, you lose your phone service. At least with a land line you have phone service.

What to do is you have no land line but a cell phone:

You can find the how to on Youtube, but regardless of if you have land line service or not, there is an electrical current that runs through your phone jack, and even in a black out that current is still there. With a very basic understanding of electrical circuits you can build a small LED lamp that can plug into a phone jack giving you light during a black out.

All these self-important schlubs running around with cell phones. You really think your friends and family need 24-hour access to you? You're not an on-call trauma surgeon.I know, everyone thinks they need a cell phone just in case they're in a rollover accident at the bottom of a ravine. News flash.....your chances of being trapped underneath your bicycle riding from Starbucks to your Eco-friendly apartment are pretty low. I think you'll be ok. You're just wasting money on cancer-causing communication devices.